1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for selectively informing at least one person in the case of an alarm condition of an object.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a known method an emergency centre is alerted in case of an alarm condition. An employee of the emergency centre who is apprised of the alarm condition will in turn alert a person designated for this purpose or the police. It is subsequently expected of the designated person or the police that they will go and investigate in order to establish whether there is an actual alarm condition or whether there has been a false alarm.
It is found in practice that false alarm occurs frequently, which has the result that the designated person or the police are increasingly less inclined to take action in the case they are alerted.
Known from European patent application 0 805 426 is a surveillance system and method. The system consists of at least one camera, the images of which are compared to the previous image. When there is a difference between the reference image and the camera image, the image processing module selects that changed portion of the total image and subsequently sends that portion via a communication means to at least one remotely situated observer. On the basis of the image material sent to him this person can take action. The alarm can be switched off remotely, or the police can be alerted. In this manner a person, for instance the owner of the object for surveillance, making use of present communication means, functions as intermediate link and the police are only alerted at a later stage. This surveillance system however allows one method of alarm via a limited communication means. The receiving of an alarm report is not guaranteed either, nor is a check made by the surveillance system whether the report has been received or read. In addition, different people cannot receive specific alarm reports. As final drawback can be mentioned that the person to be alerted can be disturbed with an alarm report at any time of the day/week.